New BTB Director Has Work Cut Out To Gain The Confidence Of Members

Isabel Vasquez

At the end of last week, the Belize Tourism Board announced its new Director of Tourism: Ms Seleni Matus.

According to the BTB, Ms Matus was chosen because she already has over five years’ managerial experience in ecotourism and sustainable development.  She was a key player in the establishment of the Mesoamerican Reef Tourism Initiative (MARTI) in 2004.  Over recent years she has also worked actively with Conservation International and Program for Belize, alongside being a founding member and the first President of the Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance.

All this – in theory – looks promising.  But not everyone involved in the tourism industry is convinced that Ms Matus is the best choice.  Here at the Belize Times, we have been contacted by certain hotel owners and tour operators who are concerned that the reality of Ms Matus being the new Director of Tourism may be far from rosy.

Last year, the Belizean tourism industry received a damning blow when five of its seven World Heritage Sites were officially placed on the ‘endangered’ list because of “unsustainable tourism activities’.  These included the attempted wholesale of a large area of Bacalar Chico, excessive infrastructural development on Half Moon Caye, the sale of crown land, mangrove destruction and dredging on South Water Caye, and illegal fishing around the Sapodilla Caye.  The report findings, released by the UNESCO mission in June 2009, stated that “the overall impression is that there is no clear recognition and understanding of the management implications of a World Heritage Property” and thus the entire area “should be considered for immediate inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger”.  It is not perverse to speculate at Ms Matus’ involvement when the condition of the reef was being compromised at the very time that she was so involved in ecotourism and sustainable development of the Belizean reef.

Ms Matus was instrumental in instigating the Mesoamerican Reef Tourism Initiative (MARTI), established with the principal objective of “significantly reducing the environmental footprint of the tourism industry” on the local reef system.  It seeks to achieve this by targeting unsustainable hotel development in coastal areas, unnecessary tourism-related infrastructure, and water pollution, stemming from inadequate treatment of wastewater and disposal of solid waste (pressures on both of which increase phenomenally due to increases in the overall coastal population).  In a nutshell, MARTI seeks to protect the reef ecosystem from any detrimental effects, thereby ensuring its health and prosperity for future generations.

So, it is little wonder that sceptics of Ms Matus’ new role as BTB Director allege that environmental stewardship promised by MARTI, under the supervision of Ms Matus, was to a large extent a failure.

Concerned members of the tourism industry can only hope that her new role as Director of Tourism will be more successful.  Her new job description, alongside the support of the Board of Directors of the BTB, will be not merely to promote and encourage tourism growth for the benefit of Belize, but to simultaneously “foster understanding within Belize of the importance of environmental protection and pollution control and the conservation of natural resources”.  Belize is a major tourism attraction predominantly because of its natural beauty and diversity.  As the UNESCO report concluded, “given that the Outstanding Universal Value…is intimately related to healthy ecosystems…the business-as-usual scenario cannot continue without irremediably compromising the Outstanding Universal Value”.  Without a protected coral reef system, Belize would no longer have the incentives to attract the hundreds of thousands of tourists that come here simply to experience our unique marine environment.  And without those visitors, not only would thousands of Belizeans lose their livelihoods, but the BTB – and therefore Ms Matus’ role as Director – would become defunct.  It can only be hoped that Ms Matus realises what a monumental role she has accepted – and what a monumental effort is required from her to win the support of her critics.

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